Eminem's Publisher Sues Apple for Unauthorized Music Sales

[kalisphoenix]

i can understand. an artist puts out a bunch of albums with 1 or 2 "hits" and a bunch of filler. people hum along, but don't buy the cds. then he/she puts out a greatest hits cd, and people buy it up. rabid fans use this as proof the artist is selling crazy mad amounts of LOL albums. or something.

works for me. still a stupid lawsuit.

Actually, his greatest hits album sold fewer copies than anything but his first and second albums, which were an independent release (400 copies) and an EP demo. His best-selling album is diamond-certified and topped Britney Spears' record for most sales in one week, at over 1.75 million copies. So it's not like his albums languished in the dustbin while people hummed along to the radio. He's not like My Bloody Valentine or Talk Talk, artists recognized as putting out albums of near or total genius despite pathetically weak sales.

I'm not a fan of Eminem, or hip-hop in general. I listen to classic rock, post-rock, grunge, shoegaze, punk from its glory days, stuff like that. Pretty straight rocker. I'm not a rabid fan -- in fact, I had to go to Wikipedia to state the information I've given

But if someone says Eminem's career is tanking, I doubt it is. He said himself he's taking a break, and his last album has sold seven million copies worldwide. That's not tanking.

Then you come and say none of his albums ever sold that many copies, and I point out that he's sold tens of millions of albums.

Saying this doesn't make me a rabid fan. It just means I have a grasp on reality that you seem to lack out of pure intellectual laziness. I see something interesting, I try to learn more about it. It's in my nature

 

[mozmac]

I don't understand this.

"Hi, we're going to give you lots of money to sell your product in shop A and B instead of just shop B."

"No"

"Sorry, what now?"

"You see, I'm a musician. I don't enjoy making money and would appreciate it if you would stop forcing me to."

NOFX is notorious for not wanting their music played on the radio as they don't want to be too popular. They're in it more for the fun and entertainment than money...or so they say.

 

[JPyre]

Nope, no misunderstanding. Eight Mile Style LLC own the copyrights to eminem albums. (which I assumed eminem was part of. Since, it is run by his long time business associate) Music publishers, actually own the copyrights to music and not the labels. They have the right to protect the copyright of the music.

Im not trying to be smart here but if the label doesn't distribute, doesn't own the masters, doesn't create music, what do they do? Just lend money out and promote?
It's Eminems own fault for being as dumb as all the other artists. (Smart enough to publish, but not smart enough to be his own label)
Another thing, Eminem has been out for how long? 4 years before iTunes was even invented, why sue now? Statute of limitations running out after 7 years, huh?


Edit: ahhh misread that... owning the "copyright" does not mean you own the masters, k

Edit: Um i'm not a law student but it looks like BMI is the copyright holder.
http://repertoire.bmi.com/writer.asp?fromrow=151&torow=175&keyname=MATHERS%20MARSHALL&querytype=WriterID&keyid=757375&page=7&blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&affiliation=BMI&cae=354929431

 

[logandzwon]

Hope he wins! More music will go DRM-less quicker till publisher have to be DRM-less to compete.

 

[CaptainScarlet]

This doesn't make any since to me. Why sue Apple, when it was Universal who actually "Uploaded" the music. Apple is only offering a service here. They should be suing the record label and not Apple.

 

[PDubNYC]

I'm sorry

I'm sorry to say this, but...

CAN YOU PLEASE GET IT STRAIGHT. It is not Eminem suing, it is the music publisher. It even says so on the title bar of this browser


So for the love god, if you don't know what you are talking about, or haven't even read the relevant articles and made a reasonable effort to go through some of the comments here to cut down on the repeats. Please ****.

Sorry, I couldn't hold it in.

Thanks
Have a bitchin' summer

 

[EagerDragon]

Sounds like bull crap. If the label is authorizing Apple, then it is a label artist issue, Apple should not be mentioned.

If the Artist have the ability to demostrate that the label does not have the right to contract with Apple then Apple will comply. He is just blowing smoke and trying to say the current contract does not cover digital rights. Apple is not going to stop over a baseless claim, show the contract or get a court rulling them come back and we will stop.

 

[Black Belt]

This whole thing would be solved if Apple could somehow slowley sign individual contracts with individual artists. Skip the record labels, leave out the middle man. Then everyone's happy and the record companies all go bankrupt. How is that not perfect!

Actually it's starting to happen. http://www.tunecore.com/

Music companies have had a terrible rule over musicians, probably by illegally controlling radio play and music distribution in stores. As things have become more digital, it has become increasingly hard to maintain this control. Podcasts provide a cheap way for musicians to get their music out and heard. Now places like TuneCore allow musicians to produce their own music and completely bypass the corrupt music industry and sell direct through online music stores. I would like to see Apple play a more active role in facilitating independent artists.

Regarding Enimen, if Universal is illegally selling digital music then he has every right, even an obligation, to sue Apple as well as Universal, to cease and desist as he is the legal copyright holder.

And yes Kalis, some people here think Apple is a cult and not a product/service and find it difficult to discuss things rationally and intellectually.

 

[destroyboredom]

I dislike the music industry as much as the next guy, however in their defense. If Eminem wants more profits from his music, don't sign with a label. Pay his recording,distro costs out of pocket. I'm not sure how much it costs a label to put out a typical cd, but lets face it, there is expenses involved in recording, distributing, promoting a cd that the artists don't pay for out of pocket...the label does.

 

[ATG]

So they are suing Apple because of an issue in the contract between Eminem's Publisher and Universal?

Okkkaaayyy...

 

[Fukui]

Um... he's not, read the title... His Record label is trying to get around the original contract with the publisher. The contract probably had no "digital" reference in it, as emininem came out before mp3s really became main stream, and WAAAAY before iTunes was even thought of.

I guess they don't realize..... CD's are um digital.

 

[Porchland]

According to the article, the main issue appears to be a contractual one, questioning the right of record labels to also sell recording artist's music digitally as well as on CD.

That's not what the article says. The article says that label rights is a "'burning issue' in the music industry" today." This case does not sound like a contractual dispute at all, though Apple's defense will likely be that it contracted with the entity (Universal) that controlled the rights.

I haven't read the complaint so I don't know what Eminem's publisher is alleging, but it doesn't sound contractual at all. That would be a dispute between Eminem/Eight Mile and Universal.

My guess is that this is a straight-up infringement case.

 

[blindzero]

I think you guys attacking Eminem are missing the point...Anyone can get their music on Itunes for a very low cost and receive way more than 9cents per song. I'm putting the soundtrack to my film up and it costs me around 60 bucks. If Record Companies opened this chain of distribution up without a contract, this is indeed a big deal. Each possible form of distribution with compensation needs to be in the contract.

Record companies are essentially paying nothing for digital distribution yet still reap all the money with a fraction going back to the artist and publisher. In the old days it was because of cost of printing/and sending out the CD. That's not the issue now. It is for all intents and purposes FREE to put your music up digitally. Artists should get more.

In a world where it's moving to digital artists don't need record labels and record labels know it but they still insist on taking 70 cents and giving the content creator only 9 cents? That's ridiculous.

 

[SPUY767]

I say, Eminem needed some extra cash. So he knows how sensitive AAPL is to news. He devises this plan to get a negative headline, cause the share price to drop a few bucks so he can snatch it up at a lower price, let it go back up to 150, then dump it for profits. Good talk.

 

[blindzero]

Hehe. Maybe! We should all buy before the case is dropped tomorrow.

I say, Eminem needed some extra cash. So he knows how sensitive AAPL is to news. He devises this plan to get a negative headline, cause the share price to drop a few bucks so he can snatch it up at a lower price, let it go back up to 150, then dump it for profits. Good talk.

 

[inkswamp]

It was very kind of Apple to provide M&M with a steady income source now that his 15 minutes are over.

 

[inkswamp]

I'm sorry to say this, but...

CAN YOU F*CKS PLEASE GET IT STRAIGHT. It is not Eminem suing, it is the music publisher. It even says so on the title bar of this browser

Wow, got issues?

It most certainly is M&M behind some of this. It's like when Fox News sued Al Franken because he was daring to use his free speech rights. The real force behind that turned out to be Bill O'Reilly. Don't kid yourself into thinking that M&M isn't at least, in part, behind the push to sue Apple.

 

[studiomusic]

I wish Mars would sue him for trademark infringement.

They did, he won.

 

[rstansby]

I thought since the Beatles lost their catalogue to Michael Jackson just about every major artist established their own publishing company.

The Beatles started their own publishing company, "Northern Songs", on February 22nd, 1963.

 

[Trooperof3]

WAIT! hold the phone, why is it Apple's fault anyway?? Shouldn't he be suing Universal? There the ones that put his music there.

 

[gwangung]

There's some legal maneuvering going on here. Unfortunately, it's all going over people's heads. (Perhaps mine, too, but then again...IANAL).

I'm not expert, but what I'm seeing is that Eminen is trying to split off digital distribution rights from physical distribution rights and broadcast distribution rights (the first has not been EXPLICITLY covered in the standard contracts). To do that, he needs to sue everyone involved in digital distribution. That includes Apple.

Further, this MAY be something that Apple really doesn't care about. If the rights ARE split off (and the best two ways to do so are to either write it into a contract or establish it in court), then that's something that may rebound to Apple's advantage as they could now negotiate individually with artists, and get a somewhat larger cut.

 

[johnee]

wow, lots of evil venom in this thread, i love it!

anyway, after seeing how things are going in the digital music age, I have very recently begun to support independent music :

1) a few less middlemen, and traditionally people in the independent markets have more than $$ on their mind, but not necessarily always.
2) going to local shows supporting musicians on their way up if I like what i've heard about them
3) buying CDs directly from the bands/artists themselves.
4) on par with #3, I've actually found AMAZING music from street musicians who have CDs. Sometimes the quality engineering isn't there, but I do like making the personal connection.

 

[theman]

Jeez! The music industry finally has a system in place that prevents MOST people from getting their music without paying. Now, all they want to do is destroy it? Doesn't make any sense. Do they want me to go back to taking it for free? Those guys are such scumbags. What more do they want? It's like a spoiled child.

 

[L3X]

This is all going to come down to semantics in the contracts regarding the word "digital." As the previous poster said, there's a difference between digital music on physical mediums as opposed to digital music on the internet for copying/downloading.

I will be very interested to see what the Intellectual Property expert (Google's senior attorney) William Patry has to say about this in his blog.

http://williampatry.blogspot.com/

 

[RealMcCoy]

MAc & Music

Now, I am far from an expert on this stuff, but what most of the people posting here are failing to realize is that in many cases, neither the record company nor the artist owns the publishing rights. That is where the music publisher comes in. They control how the music is distributed in many cases, right down to the sheet music at a guitar store.

So chances are this is NOT Eminem suing, and Universal technically did not have the right to distribute his music this way, and as Arn stated originally, this probably comes down to the wording in a contract.

And just my 2 cents, but if you don't think that Eminem has talent because you don't like his music, then that is a pretty self-centered statement. I, for one, am not a big fan, but I can certainly see what he has brought to to hip-hop/rap etc. I think that pretty much anyone in the music industry would agree that he has made some significant contributions to his genre, his ******** personality aside.

Just my opinion, but at least it is an open one.

And here we go ... an opinion is the right kind of statement to this issue. And that is for a couple of reasons.

First of all Music don´t need Music Biz ... it is self-fullfilling and an object to taste of the individual. So it can not be judged in any way, although "judging" is a common sport these days ;o)

Then there is the fact that most of the posting about this issue, aren´t really aware of the music biz details and norms. So most of the postings are simply based on speculations and guessings.

There are loads of different contract versions in the music biz, loads of different regulations that vary by country or even state. So one is not able to judge issues like the above mentioned, unless you know the concrete contract, that has been made.

The case could have some truth in it or it is just a platform to keep the "brand" Eminem in the buz. Just like (for example) the endless Briteny Spears stories ... blah blah blah ... but everybody gets reminded of the artist (brand) ... for whatever future biz activity. Remember, there is no such think as "bad news" ;o)

Besides all of that ... there is one real truth here. The music industry has created there own monster by sleeping for a long time on the digital issue. This is also a reason, why loads of contratcs in the music biz are missing regulations for the digital issue. Most of these "missing parts" have been taking care of but some are still there ... and if someone (artist, publisher, label, sub-label, producer, musician, etc.) is financially independent enough ... he will wait for the right kind of moment to claim his interest.

Most likely ... Apple is not the right address to sue ... bt like someone stated before ... it is the most effective address to gain media attention ;o)

Saludos